Interviews, Manga and the Monday Morning News (UPDATED)

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 5, 2007 - 11:31

Dig that new cover from Frank "Damonk" Cormier and Meaghan Quinn! Our February issue is focused on webcomic collectives and we've got a lot of great articles on tap for it. This morning I've posted the first two articles for this month's issue:

An interview with Mark Mekkes in his role as chairman of the WCCAs, now in its seventh year. There were a lot of changes leading into this year's program and hopefully, this interview helps to shed some light on things.

The first installment of a new column on web manga by Brigid Alverson. Brigid already blogs about manga at her own site MangaBlog and our good friends at Digital Strips. At Comixpedia, she'll be rounding up the good stuff -- and telling you what to avoid as well.

HEADLINES

• It looks like the promised comics-hosting functions of ComicSpace are now available. Haven't tried them myself yet so if anyone has any opinions to offer add them in the comments.
• I don't know if this is still open or not, but Ryan Estrada was looking for creators to help with this year's online presentation for the WCCAs.

INTERVIEWS

• Shaenon Garrity interviews Whitney June Robinson, creator of Alma Mater (which you may have seen advertised here on Comixpedia). AM is now on the Modern Tales lineup.
• Gamer News interviews Steve Napierski, creator of Dueling Analogs.

REVIEWS

• Independent Propaganda reviews two webcomics: Wireheads and Martian.
• The Ferrett talks up Yet Another Fantasy Gaming Comic:

...YAFGC is alive in ways that other strips aren’t; that’s partially because it’s drawn in pencil and has the raw energy of a sketch, but also because Rich Morris has the talent of a classic Disney animator; he manages, with a few quick strokes of his pencil, to bring people to life so that the way they stand, hips cocked, tells you more about them than the dialogue ever would.

DEAD TREES

• 2007 is going well for Jim Zubkavich, the creator the 2002 webcomic Makeshift Miracle which debuted in print last year (after substantial rework on portions of it) and is now starting to appear in book store chains.

CONGRATULATIONS

• Todd and Penguin creator David Wright is going to be a dad! Not surprisingly that means Todd and Penguin will be on hiatus for awhile (until May). While Todd and Penguin is on hiatus, Wright is posting the first months of the comic which were lost when Keenspot's server crashed in 2002. Wright explained that he was unable to find the first few months of comics until recently - so now, after five years, they are going back on the web.
• Terror Island and The Crown Prince both hit the 100 strips milestone.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

• Unshelved does it own spin on those PC versus Mac commercials.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

• Engtech asks "What's your favorite webcomic?".
• Dave Roman posts some of the cartoons Todd Webb drew at their wedding (cute idea to have a "wedding cartoonist").

• Keenspot
• Bill Barnes
• Dave Roman
• Jim Zubkavich
• Krishna Sadasivam
• Mark Mekkes
• Ryan Estrada
• Shaenon K. Garrity
• Whitney June Robinson